


Something Yet More Soft

by NothingRiddikulus



Category: Cosmere - Brandon Sanderson, Stormlight Archive - Brandon Sanderson
Genre: Gen, Lopen doesnt grow his arm back becasue thats stupid, ace!Kaladin mentioned, aro!Adolin, enemies to QPs, this is melodramatic as fuck, touch starved vorinists
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-11-07
Updated: 2017-11-07
Packaged: 2019-01-30 21:43:54
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 3
Words: 3,118
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12662007
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/NothingRiddikulus/pseuds/NothingRiddikulus
Summary: You were not obligated, Adolin decided, to enjoy the company of your brother’s friends. They weren’t your friends, after all.Adolin and Lopen discover they have more in common than they'd thought.





	1. Lopen

You were not obligated, Adolin decided, to enjoy the company of your brother’s friends. It did not even make you a bad person to _dislike_ their company. They weren’t _your_ friends, after all. The unfortunate thing was that no matter how much you disliked them, how much you wanted to punch a wall when they spoke… well you would always end up having to spend time with them. You were forever trapped in the same circle by your mutual associate, and your paths would cross somehow.

Right now, for instance, Adolin’s least favourite of Renarin’s friends was standing in the doorway, while Adolin pulled himself off the floor and tried but failed miserably to look like he wasn’t crying. Lopen was dressed in the same uniform as the rest of bridge four, left sleeve sliced off neatly so it wouldn’t flap in the breeze around the space where his forearm had been. Briefly Lopen looked at him with something like sympathy in his eyes, and it even crossed Adolin’s mind that he might step forward and try to comfort him. He didn’t. 

‘Your father wanted me to tell you that Brightness Davar has written to you.’

‘She… has? What did she say?’

‘I wouldn’t know, Sir. The only reason he asked me is I happened to walk by. Still getting used to Radiant magic city’ -He meant Urithiru- ‘and I couldn’t find my way to bridge four’s rooms.’

‘Right.’

‘Not that they’d tell me what was in a lighteyes’ personal letters either.’

‘Right, right, of course.’ Adolin steadied himself, leaning against the wall for support, and watched Lopen walk away. In that moment, wiping his tears on his own, his irritation with the small herdazian only grew and he bristled at Lopen’s indifference. 

‘Oh!’, shouted Lopen from halfway down the hall, ‘Word of advice: Make sure your ex fiancé doesn’t get near you with that new shardblade of hers!’ he laughed. Adolin groaned, and struggled to hold back more tears. Shallan, now another in a long line of broken relationships, was precisely the reason he felt sick to his stomach with misery. He’d thought this time would be different, and it had. This time _he’d_ ended the relationship rather than the woman he was courting. This time he’d failed even more than usual. 

Adolin sighed. He wiped his nose on the back off his sleeve. He felt... uncaring. Too tired to be sad. Logically, he decided, having Shallan’s letter read to him was probably the best course of action.

~ 

‘You know what I don’t get, gancho?’

‘No, but I’m sure you’re going to tell me.’ Rock sprinkled a few spices into his vat of stew, and began stirring again. He prepared to block Lopen out. As much as he loved his friend, he wasn’t in the mood to endure another rant about Adolin Kholin.

‘Well for one thing, the prince’s brother’ -Lopen always referred to him this way- ‘just doesn’t know how good he has it. Renarin’s treated like chull dung and never complains but his brother? Weeping like someone died because he fell out with a girl!’

‘He’s not all that bad.’

‘Sure but it’s the attitude I don’t like gancho. Hey Sig!’

‘Yes?’ said Sigzil, approaching the pot of stew and taking a long happy sniff.

‘Renarin’s brother: he’s awful, right?’

‘I wouldn’t say awful. That’s what Kal used to think but he changed his mind remember? So he can’t be all bad. Besides, he’s kind to Renarin.’

‘hmm’. Lopen wasn’t too happy with this response. ‘So none of you think-'

‘Lopen with all due respect please shut up.’ 

‘Yeah what’s your obsession with Adolin anyway? You go on about hating him but you obviously think about him all the time…’  
‘Ha!’ shouted Rock happily. ‘You want to court him! Perhaps that’s why we endure so much speculation about the state of his relationships eh?’  
‘Who does Lopen want to court?’ This was Renarin, who had snuck up behind them all without noticing but had thankfully missed Lopen’s tirade against Adolin.

‘Your brother’, Sigzil informed him. Renarin gasped and hopefully looked to Lopen to see if it were true.

‘Its not true.’ Lopen said. ‘They’re teasing.’ Renarin’s shoulders sagged. Then he took a quick breath and composed himself.

‘Well I suppose since he seems to be planning to court all of Roshar it makes sense he hasn’t gotten to you yet. Anyone reasonable person would put you at the bottom of the list.’ This made Lopen howl with laughter. He slapped Renarin on the shoulder and then went up on his tiptoes to ruffle his hair. Renarin snorted.

The door open dramatically, and Adolin Kholin himself floated in sighing. His eyes were still red from tears and his face distraught. He draped himself over a chair.

‘Shallan _hates_ me’, he declares.

‘Every woman hates you’, Renarin told him. Adolin sniffed.

‘Her letter said I’ve offended her, all of Alethkar, and Jasnah’s memory.’ He burst into tears.

‘Storms’… Renarin chewed his lip, ‘That’s _harsh_.’

‘It’s true though.’ Adolin said. Renarin awkwardly patted his shoulder.

‘Storms!’ exclaimed Teft. ‘Someone give that boy a hug!’ He nudged Renarin closer to Adolin. The brothers held each other awkwardly.

‘Airsick lowlanders’, muttered Teft, looking at Rock for approval out of the corner of his eye. Rock chuckled.

‘Don’t lump us all in together’, Lopen grumbled. ‘It’s just those storming Alethi that never touch each other’.

~

Adolin stayed the night in the bridgeman barracks, fearful of leaving and seeing Shallan. He’d taken the empty bed meant for Kaladin, which the bridgemen had happily offered, and had admittedly been good enough not to look too pained when he saw its size. He was now curled up asleep happily and snoring. Lopen, wide awake, rolled his eyes. A few minutes later he was cheered up by Adolin rolling over and immediately falling out of his bed. Lopen snickered a little as Adolin sat up on the floor and rubbed his head. He didn’t look sad any longer, just tired. Lopen’s heart panged a little at the sight of him. To cover it up he decided a joke was needed.

‘You used to a bigger bed in your palace, Princeling?’

‘This is smaller than mine at home, yes.’ Adolin sighed, completely unaffected by Lopen’s comment. ‘I think I’m a bad person’, he said quietly. ‘Though that has nothing to do with you.’

They both went back to sleep.


	2. Adolin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> because nothing says cheesy fic like the characters getting confined in a small space together

Adolin was woken up by the chattering of bridgemen. They were planning, it turned out, to go clothes shopping. It made sense in a weird kind of way. That kind of thing was a reminder of normal life. And, he supposed, if the world might end then they all might as well look good for it. He went along with them. Fashion was a good distraction.

The market stalls were hastily set up by Sebarial, and they were chaotic and packed tight. It was nice, thought Adolin, to be surrounded by clothes. It made him feel at peace. Even if they were of a lower quality than what he was used to. Before long, pairs and trios of bridgemen started venturing off together, excited by an interesting fabric or design they could see on the other side of the market. They flooded off in different directions and soon tattooed foreheads could be seen poking out from every part of the crowd. Eventually even Lopen left, and Adolin grinned internally. 

Unfortunately, his plan to stay with the main group was soon ruined. Skar and Leyten came running back to them together, two blushing women trailing after. They’d decided rather spontaneously to bring the girls they were courting along for the day. Skar slung an arm around his lover’s waist and kissed her tenderly. They looked into each other’s eyes and sighed. Adolin’s stomach churned. Making his excuses, he ran after Lopen.

Lopen looked at him in confusion and dismay and didn’t say anything. He picked up the shirt closest to him and walked with it into one of the tiny fitting rooms. Standing outside awkwardly, Adolin wondered whether purchasing a fifth pair of blue stud earrings would make him feel better. Deciding it wouldn’t, he pushed through a pair of the crowded clothes racks and peered around, hoping that a simple scarf or waistcoat would catch his eye so he’d at least have something to try on. He gulped. Standing approximately three feet away from him was Janala.

Adolin quickly retreated towards the fitting rooms, grabbing a pair of trousers as he did. They were obviously far too small for him.

‘Adolin?’ he heard his ex-lover’s voice call out. Panicked, he tried to figure out which of the fitting rooms was empty. He needed to hide. Unfortunately, there were two rooms, and both had their curtains closed. Maybe he’d take a chance and join someone… But he could end up squashed in with a complete stranger. He hadn’t seen which room Lopen had gone into. Out of the corner of his eye, Adolin saw a skirt drop onto the floor from under the curtain of one of the fitting rooms. He blushed, and ran into the other. 

With Lopen.

‘What in damnation are you doing!’ Lopen yelled.

‘Shhh! I’m hiding. I saw ah, I saw a woman I used to court.’

‘And you couldn’t just face her like a man?’ 

‘…No? The last time I did that I had stones thrown at me. I was covered in bruises for weeks.’ 

Lopen swore under his breath, and began to button up his shirt angrily. He grabbed the trousers from Adolin’s hands. ‘Are you trying those on?’ Adolin asked.

‘Well I might as well. Looks like we’ll be in here for a while doesn’t it, since the ruling family of this ridiculous country has produced a _coward_.’ As if to accentuate his point, Adolin’s name was called out again.

‘You probably won’t even fit into those you know’, said Adolin, gesturing to the trousers. ‘They’re tiny.’  
‘That’s what you think’, said Lopen. He pulled the trousers all the way on and looked up with a smug expression on his face. ‘We don’t all have your enormous muscular thighs princeling.’

‘…Was that flirting?’

‘What? Of course not! You know what I think of you.’

‘That was uh, a genuine question. I really can’t tell a lot of the time.’

‘No wonder you have such awful luck with women.’ Lopen laughed.

‘Hey there Adolin!’, came another voice. Jakamav. Adolin flinched. ‘That brother of yours get any better at fighting since we last met?’ Several different laughs came from outside the fitting room. Lopen looked at him in confusion.

‘Jakamav was there at that duel. He used to be my friend but well… I don’t carry on friendships with people who go behind my back and try to hurt my family.’ Adolin was shaking with anger, his voice quiet but filled with tension, like he was holding back words of primal anger. ‘I can’t go out there’, he told Lopen. ‘I’d hurt him. Father doesn’t want me causing trouble so I can’t, but I’d love to hurt him really really bad.’

‘I’ll do it’, said Lopen, and he flung open the curtains. ‘…Which one of them is Jakamav?’ Adolin pointed at his old friend. Lopen walked up to him, gave him a smirk, and punched him hard. Jakamav held a hand to his lips, wincing. When he brought it away it was covered in blood.

~

Mere minutes later, a fight had broken out, almost reached a conclusion, and been broken up by the short, anxious looking man who owned the shop. Adolin’s shirt was ripped in several places and so, with a pained look on his face, he removed it. 

‘Guess I’m going around shirtless for the rest of the day’, he joked to Lopen.

‘Not by the ten names of the Almighty will I let _that_ happen’, said Lopen. He marched into the fitting room, daintily picked up the shirt he’d tried on earlier, and threw it at Adolin. ‘His father will pay’, he told the shopkeeper.


	3. Lopen and Adolin

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Things get dramatic because I finished this late at night

Renarin sniffed the air. He could smell… chouta? They weren’t near anywhere that sold it as far as he knew. He sniffed again. The chouta smell was closer. He turned around and came face to face with his brother.

‘Adolin!’, he exclaimed. ‘…Why do you smell like Lopen?’

‘I… don’t?’

‘You do! Or no, your shirt does! You two are sharing clothes.’ Renarin wiggled his eyebrows suggestively.

‘We are not sharing clothes I’ve just been in close proximity to him all day. Unfortunately. And I do not care for your suggestive comments.’ Adolin pouted and Renarin giggled. ‘Besides’, Adolin told his brother, ‘you can’t be mean to me a pickpocket had my spheres.’ This had happened within the last few hours, and been a horrible end to a horrible shopping trip.

‘You think you have it bad gancho, but a pickpocket had my _arm_ ’, Lopen shouted to him. Adolin and Lopen both froze, and tried to pretend a term of endearment hadn’t just been used. This was particularly difficult for Adolin. He was already trying to pretend Lopen’s joke wasn’t the funniest thing he had heard all week. Eventually Renarin broke the tension by bursting into a fit of giggles, and then dragged Lopen off to dinner with bridge four, leaving Adolin alone.

Adolin, with no distractions, was forced to think about Lopen. He still found Renarin’s friend obnoxious but well, it was now impossible to deny Lopen could be serious when the situation called for it. And he had stood up to Jakamav. He loved Renarin in that same fierce way Adolin did. Seeing Lopen throw that punch had made Adolin’s heart grow soft and his stomach fill with warmth. And thinking about the that only amplified how he felt. Adolin smiled to himself, and tried to hold back his worries.

After all, weren’t these soft friendly feelings what girls always interpreted as romantic ones? And Lopen already thought Adolin may see him that way. Adolin considered squashing the feelings down but decided even if Lopen did misinterpret them he was unlikely to reciprocate. 

~

Lopen was… confused. Arm linked with one Kholin, he held the other in his thoughts. Storms it really was cliché wasn’t it, your best friend’s older brother? Not that he thought his feelings for Adolin were _those_ kind. No, he simply wanted… Something. Adolin’s friendship he supposed. Lopen took a deep breath and trembled. He wanted punches on the shoulder and a space next to him at dinner and to draw out those joy filled belly laughs Adolin did so well. He wanted to hold Adolin the next time he cried. He wanted to be held. He wanted… Well he wanted Adolin. He wanted all of him. And it felt very good, if a little embarrassing, to realise that.

Lopen heard a scream. 

Jakamav’s. He ran at Lopen with a knife in his hand.

‘You’re going to pay for humiliating me earlier’, Jakamav told him. ‘I’m going to teach you your place.’ A moment later Lopen was on the floor, blood seeping out onto his shirt from a slit in his stomach. 

~

Adolin heard a scream. Lopen’s. He ran back the way he had come but by the time he arrived, Lopen was on the ground and bleeding. Jakamav was a good few dozen feet away, and getting further.

‘Spheres!’, yelled Renarin, his voice hoarse. ‘I need spheres I can _heal_ him with spheres Adolin tell me you have infused spheres’. 

Adolin shook his head. ‘Jakamav will. Get them from him. Make him _scared_ Renarin make him _terrified_.’ 

‘And you’ll look after-‘

‘I’ve got him.’ Adolin pulled Lopen’s body into his arms. Renarin nodded and ran, a beautiful green blade materialising beside him. 

Adolin pulled Lopen tight. 

‘Since I’m dying’, said Lopen, ‘I think you should admit you’re in love with me.’ He managed a weak smile.

‘You are not dying, and I am no such thing’, Adolin whispered. 

‘What do you want from me then?’ Lopen gripped Adolin’s coat and pulled himself into a seated position. ‘I think I deserve to know’. Adolin considered this, which felt like a ridiculous thing to do when Lopen was bleeding out. Tears rolled from his eyes. He kissed Lopen hard on the mouth.

‘That… That is not what I want’, he said. 

‘No’, whispered Lopen. ‘perhaps this is what you want?’ He leaned in and gave Adolin a soft kiss on the cheek. ‘You want something gentle with me. Because obviously you don’t want to court people one bit, me included.’

‘Obviously?’

‘Yes. Very obviously. Sorry I was ever mean to you.’

‘Storms you’re not that close to death that you need to atone. Besides you have nothing to apologise for, I deserved it.’ Lopen laughed at this softly.  
Renarin came running back, glowing brighter than the sun with Stormlight.

‘I knocked Jakamav out’, he announced happily.

Kneeling down, Renarin held his hands to Lopen’s bloody stomach, and the sliced skin knit itself back together. Lopen touched his stomach gently, and was relieved to find almost completely smooth skin.

‘I’m back to looking sexy for you, Kholin’, he murmured.

‘I say we both decide that comment was meant for the other’, said Renarin to Adolin.

~

‘You see, gancho, it makes perfect sense’, said Lopen. ‘There are people like you in the world, who don’t like romance, and there are people like the Captain who don’t like sex. It evens out.’

‘hmmph’, said Adolin.

Lopen lay in Adolin’s bed, strong arms tight around his stomach and golden head pushed into his chest. Adolin needed lots of hugs, as it turned out. Storming touch starved Alethi. Sleepily he looked up at Lopen, who was not quite his lover but something yet more soft and special. He attempted to lean forward, perhaps to kiss Lopen’s cheek for the thousandth time that morning. Being lazy he gave up, and planted a wet kiss on Lopen’s belly instead. Lopen groaned. 

‘Princeling’, he said, playing with his earring, ‘You do have to get up. We have a long day of pranks and mischief ahead.’ He tickled Adolin’s shoulders until he burst into laughter and his grip on Lopen’s stomach was loosened.

Adolin sat up, and played with his own earring, which matched Lopen’s. Tokens of affection like that didn’t bother him now that he was with someone who would never force him to kiss, or marry, or call them ‘my darling’. Of course, it would take a while until he felt confident in himself and his strange, non romantic ways, but Lopen made it feel easier.

Adolin looked Lopen in the eye.

‘Yes’, he said. ‘Yes we do.’


End file.
